BJP Central Election Committee meeting: The Central Election Committee (CEC) meeting of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) concluded in the national capital after discussing candidates for the upcoming Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh Assembly Elections.
BJP discussed candidates for at least 69 seats in Chhattisgarh today, said sources.
Earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived at the party headquarters in Delhi for the BJP Central Election Committee meeting. Several BJP leaders including Union Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal arrived at the party headquarters in the national capital for CEC meet, scheduled to be held to finalise candidates for the upcoming assembly elections in Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan today (October 1).
BJP leader and former Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje also reached the venue. Party leaders Gajendra Singh Shekhawat and Pralhad Joshi also reached the party headquarters.
Earlier, Union Home Minister Amit Shah also reached BJP Chief JP Nadda's residence.
Rajasthan Election candidates:For the first time in the current round of CEC meetings, candidates for the Rajasthan polls were discussed as senior party leaders from the state, including former chief minister Vasundhara Raje, joined the national leadership in the meeting.
With the party fielding three Union ministers, besides four other MPs, as candidates in the Madhya Pradesh assembly polls, it may continue with the strategy in Rajasthan. Union ministers Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Arjun Ram Meghwal and Kailash Choudhary are from the state where the BJP won all but one of the 25 Lok Sabha seats in 2019.
Union ministers Rajnath Singh and Amit Shah, besides party president JP Nadda, are among the members of the CEC.
Chhattisgarh BJP leaders, including former chief minister Raman Singh and state party chief Arun Sao, also arrived in the national capital as the CEC is expected to finalise the names for the remaining seats in the state.
Prior to Sunday's meeting, the CEC sat twice to finalise the party candidates for the current round of state polls and had discussions on Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh seats, especially those held by the Congress, its main challenger in the two states besides Rajasthan.
The BJP has so far named 79 candidates for the polls to the 230-member Madhya Pradesh assembly and 21 for the elections to the 90-member House in Chhattisgarh. The development is a break from the past as the party generally names its candidates after the Election Commission's announcement of the poll schedule.
The advance exercise marks its decision to give candidates ample time to drive their campaigns, more so as it has so far concentrated on seats held by the Congress.
Of the five states going to polls, the BJP is in power only in Madhya Pradesh, while the Congress holds the reins in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. The BRS is in power in Telangana and the Mizo National Front in Mizoram.
Discussions on seat:
"Candidates for about 60 to 70 seats in Rajasthan will be discussed while those for 31 seats in Chhattisgarh will be approved today," a source earlier said.
The meeting, according to party sources, will largely deliberate on the upcoming state elections in Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan. The BJP has set sights on wresting power from the Congress in Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan. The polls are scheduled to be held towards the end of this year. Three other poll-bound states - Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, and Mizoram - will also be a referendum of sorts on the BJP's popularity and the political headwinds going into next year's Lok Sabha elections.
The BJP is busy fine-tuning its strategies for five poll-bound states, including MP and Chhattisgarh. The party has classified all seats in these states into individual categories of A, B, C, and D.
Category A includes seats where the party has consistently performed well while category B includes seats where the BJP has a mixed record of victories and losses. Category C includes seats where the party is deemed to be on a relatively weaker footing. In contrast, Category D seats have seen continuous BJP defeats in the last three elections.
(With agencies inputs)
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